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Saturday, March 28, 2015

Weekend Review: NHL Game, Timmy's Steeped Tea, & Glee Finale

I'm in post-call zombie mode today, having arrived home from a 28-hour call shift at 10 am this morning (and fighting to stay awake all day so I that I can sleep early tonight for call again tomorrow!).

Last night after a slew of the usual cholecystitis, hernia, and bowel obstruction consults, we had a trauma come in to liven things up. Strange confession: over the past couple of years trauma calls have led me to develop a weird helicopter anxiety...which is inconvenient given that I live just over a block away from the hospital helicopter pad. Whenever I hear or see the helicopter coming in, I reflexively feel dread and anxiety (conflictingly mixed with excitement (?) if I get paged stat to the trauma bay to meet them). Mainly, I know that the helicopter is a portent of bad news (think Harry Potter seeing the grim during that stormy quidditch game).

To further qualify my helicopter anxiety, hearing the chopper reminds me of a creepy scene from the book Tomorrow When the War Began, where the characters hide from an enemy chopper hovering at the windows of their house (here's that scene from the movie -- see, creepy!). Okay, enough about helicopters! Here are some things I've enjoyed in the past week:
  1. snow -- We got another (and hopefully our last) foot of snow last weekend. While I'm glad that it's all melted now, I'll admit that it did make for a pretty scene.
    royal alexandra hospital healing garden
    last week: just like summer (this is the hospital's rooftop Healing Garden)
    edmonton snow march
    ...but over the weekend: back to winter! (at least it's pretty...and feels extra cosy inside)
  2. hockey -- I unexpectedly got to go to my first NHL game this week! Only having watched games on TV before, it felt strange to see the players live. The arena was ginormous, the crowd was energetic, and the intermission entertainment was fun (including the cutest 5-minute hockey game amongst a local team of tiny kids!). We took the LRT right to and from Rexall Place, which couldn't have been easier.
    oilers jets hockey
    Oilers vs. Jets (1 - 4) at Rexall Place
  3. hospital library -- This week I discovered the hospital library, a quiet refuge featuring comfy armchairs. During a particularly long day, I snuck away for a break from the chaos and just about fell asleep in one of those chairs...until my pager vibrated.
    royal alexandra hospital library
    definite napping potential
  4. candy -- It's been far too long since I've had candy in the house and if ever I could use some, it would be now on general surgery (really, it's good that I'm only on this rotation for a month...any longer and my "it's-okay-because-I'm-on-gen-surg" junk food diet would probably kill me before the residency was up). Eating candy while doing that 4 am consult makes call slightly more bearable.
    sour berries
    sour candy, always
  5. Tim Horton's steeped tea -- I broke from my standard coffee order this morning to try Timmy's ever popular steeped tea. Man, I've been missing out! As a coffee addict, saying that I'll have to seriously deliberate over the steeped tea vs. coffee decision every morning now is the biggest compliment I could give their tea. I don't see how people can drink double/double (two creams + two sugars) steeped tea though...even with one sugar it was almost too sweet.
  6. Glee finale -- Yes, I'm a Glee fan (don't worry, I won't use the term Gleek). Well, to clarify, I was a fan of Glee in its early seasons, had enough faith that the show would pick up to follow it through its lukewarm past couple of seasons, and was looking forward to seeing how the writers would wrap things up in its two final episodes, which aired last Friday. I've got to say, I thought the writers did a really great job on the last two episodes, featuring a Don't Stop Belivin' flashback involving Cory Monteith (surprisingly moving), appearances by old cast members, and a song written by Darren Criss himself.
    glee finale
    (http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6509358/glee-finale-jenna-ushkowitz-column)
  7. Vulture Glee recaps -- Generally more entertaining than the show itself, Lauren Hoffman's Glee recaps on Vulture are something I look forward to reading every week. I'll miss her humour, sarcasm, and simultaneous criticism of and love for the quirks of the show.
What was great in your week?

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